And another well done to Anthony - you captured the mood of the piece perfectly. You let it breathe and flow so well. Brilliant recording! I like the black+white video as well

Thank you, I've played it a lot more since November

I'm learning it right now, this is a great piece
Now I'm up for challenge, what's a very hard and very nice piece by Einaudi?

Hmmm.... depends on whether you want to stay in the Best Of book or branch out to some of the others, and whether you're still wanting "strange, kind of complex, that have interesting dissonance." His latest album/sheet music collection (Nightbook) is FULL of strange, complex, interestingly dissonant pieces that are VERY HARD, with "Lady Labyrinth" being a good example.

If you have the Divenire book, I think Divenire is possibly Einaudi's most beautiful piece ever, and it is rather challenging (at least for me) because of the tempo.

Keeping to the Best Of book, I'd recommend "In un' altra vita" as a good choice for you to tackle next.

I Due Fiumi. I probably play it a little slow.. also one of my keys was a bit sticky, so I kinda messed up a bit, I'll record it again later when I get a hold of a piano^_^

Something I thought was impossible has happened. When I started to learn "I giorni" last spring I looked at the repeated tenths in the left hand and laughed. No way I was going to do that. I dropped the top note and played the other two notes, as displayed in my YT video.

A few months later I thought to myself that it would be nice to try and play it as written. I can play ninths but just touching the two notes for a tenth had the very tips of the fingers touching the very edge of the key. At full, uncomfortable stretch. And that's without a third key in the middle.

I still recall the first time I tried. I thought I had caused permanent damage. In my mid 40s I didn't expect to grow new flexibility. But every so often I'd try again and slowly it got closer to happening. Now for the past few months I've been playing all three notes at the full tenth span. I still don't know that I'd go on stage and try to do it under pressure as it's still at the edge, but I can now do it with no pain. So my message is: don't sell yourself short without giving it a good effort. Now my only deviation from the sheet music is a chord change in the left hand in one place...on purpose because I think it sounds better.

Nice job on I due fiumi, Augustina. And you're not overly slow; Einaudi's time on the piece in the I Giorni album is 4:22.

Swaying Tree, your experience with those tenths is both highly interesting to me and inspiring. I gave up on those chords long ago, but you have me thinking that I might want to try them again. Rearranging the chord is playable but definitely does not sound as good.

I have noticed that my ability to reach 9ths has definitely improved over time, so I'm a believer in gains in flexibility.

Just spotted this on twitter...still not going to make up for not being able to see one of the California concerts though but I'll take what I can get.

LudovicoEinaud (Yes, Mr. Einaudi's twitter account is the one that is missing the "i")

We're performing live on air at KCRW radio in L.A. on Friday @ 11am. Listen live http://bit.ly/apLGKH

I'll assume that 11am is Pacific time.

I have never had the slightest urge to sign up for twitter until now. Thanks for the heads up, Anthony.

It's a shame he's only doing the two California concerts this time. *sigh*

I even looked at the radio shows web page and they do have archives of some of the past shows. I'll try to record it just in case but it may actually be easily available after the airing.

Well I couldn't resist and I do kinda of kick myself for waiting so long. Had to see how things were going to be. Anyhow, I've just got 4 tickets for Saturday's show in the first row of the balcony on the "Keys" side of the piano!

I am going to surprise the wife and a good friend of ours who can then decide where they're going to be taking us for early dinner

Will report back later on. I will bring my book in case I get a change for him to sign it! and of course, if cameras are allowed I will snap some pics!


- SC

TTigg, I am so jealous. You must come back and let us know, in detail, how it went.

p.s. Einaudi usually stays after to sign autographs. If it's not too crowded he may even take the time to let you get some photos posing with him.

Incidentally, Ed Weiss sent me the link to an interview that appeared with Einaudi (thanks, Ed! ). He talks about his inspiration for various albums and his own musical listening choices:

Einaudi interview

Thanks for the link Monica.

Well I'm going to be taking my Sheet Music book in the hope he can sign and or pose (camera will be handy). I'm not sure if we're going to be able to take pics but I'll also have my small binocs with me too.

I've stumped the wife & friends who have NO idea what's going on, going to be a lot of fun, will for sure report back
- SC

Here's a link to the performance of Einaudi and his fellow musicians that was on air at KCRW on Friday morning.

http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPlayer2.html?type=video&id=mb100312ludovico_einaudi

If that link doesn't load the player for some reason, here is that radio shows webpage:

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb

One should be able to scroll down to the recent shows list and find Einaudi there and either click on listen or watch.

They start off with Indaco then Lady Labyrinth followed by Nightbook. Then there is an interview section followed by maybe two more pieces. I think it was The Crane Dance followed by Eros or The Tower from what I recall of the performance yesterday.

Heading out now - so excited!!
- SC

..and I am happy to report that last night was no exception!

The venue was "sold out" so I was chuffed that I got to see him. After looking at the seating chart I picked (from what was left) Balcony seats since it was the front row. When I got seated this was my view for the show



Needless to say I was chuffed beyond belief! We had an incredible view and man what a show! He did some Divenire tracks in his MASSIVE encore . Seriously was amazed, the Nightbook tracks were amazing (god the CD) but they didn't have any books of music there. I did grab Divenire book and CD though.

Having all of his band playing there also (Violin etc) was amazing but of course I was trying to stay focused on the piano only parts. Needless to say I think it may be a while before I finish up Alfred #3. Either that or I will finish up #3 as soon as I can (motivation) so I can learn ALL of the Einaudi pieces I now have in my possession - HOOKED just doesn't seem to be a strong enough word!

Then of course I was (as instructed by Monica) lucky enough to meet Einaudi afterwards and have him sign my "Best of" book!



I am going to ensure I am signed up on his website for any and all updates. Next time he comes back to US I will see him again for sure, I hope it's pretty soon!
- SC

I can backup TTigg in saying that the show was amazing from begining to end. My wife and I were in row G, a few seats from the left. I pretty much had the same view as you did. I was sad when it ended, could have listen all night.

oooohhhh! It sounds like it was a wonderful evening. Great picture, TTigg! I wish I could've been there. I'm glad to hear it was a sold-out show. Maybe it will make him more willing to tour the States again.

I was hoping we were going to. That's the longest and most welcomed "encore" I've ever had the pleasure of listening to! Sorry we were not able to meet another PW Couple but I'm glad you were there to experience it, amazing!

I'm completely jealous pleased that you had a good time TTigg and company.

Thanks for the pictures. I don't think you had to tell us how wonderful the concert was because if you told us it was rubbish we wouldn't believe you anyways.

Now back to piano practice! If I can't go see a Nightbook concert the next best thing is to try to play some of the songs myself!

Thanks Anthony and agreed,
Nightbook - that's going to have to wait. With Divenire and Best of I'm going to be busy for quite some time!
- SC

I saw/heard Ludovico this month in London at the Royal Albert Hall. It was also packed out.

I was intrigued by the fourth addition to his ensemble who 'played' with a laptop and presumably a mixer. He participated in acknowledging the ovations so was definitely part of the performance. At one part I thought he was taking a live mic'ed feed from Ludovico's Steinway and changing the sound with embellishments.

Did you have that too in the concert you attended, and what did you make of it?

They were selling his sheet music in London.

He was in this concert also. I believe he was feeding background sound effects to some of the music they were playing. Also, but i'm sure, he was controling some of the lighting.

I know he had at least one track in the computer which was planets from the Nighbook cd. He play it as three of the members walk from the entrance to the stage playing along with it.

Yeah we had him too, I believe it was just to control some of the sound effects that you obviously get on the CD but can't replicate with piano alone.

Royal Albert eh? very jealous!
- SC

Here's my latest Einaudi recording, if for no other reason than to bump the Einaudi thread back to the first page. It's "I Giorni," a piece I recorded on my H4 a couple of years ago but never made a video of. It's a frustrating piece to record because (as those of you who have played it know full well) the trickiest part of the piece comes at the light delicate arpeggios near the end that need to be played very softly. I don't know how many times I've gotten five minutes of a good take only to start those arpeggios and then skip a note or two in my attempt to play them pp.

Beautiful Monica!
- SC

Well I've finished up La Nascita Delle Cose Segrete so now I just need to get a quite day so I can try to get a good recording of it. I also confess to not doing (this week) most of the other reg practice stuff I am supposed to (chords, daily dozen etc) since I couldn't put Primavera down (lol)

I should hopefully have one or both of them up here in a bit, although I really need to keep one of them for the next recital (eek!)
- SC

Oh, I love Primavera, Ttigg! I vote for that one for the recital.

Can't wait to hear both of those pieces TTigg.

I've yet to tackle a piece from Divenire. Primavera is sort of an obvious first choice as it doesn't seem nearly as difficult to play as some of the others from the album. Who knows, maybe I'll wind up picking something harder as the first piece I attempt to tackle from there. However, I think I'm going to wait a while before trying and try to revisit some pieces I attempted in the past but never quite finished work on. I'm thinking of at least one piece from Una Mattina and one from Le Onde for ones I might complete work on next. Of course I do tend to be terrible at predicting the next piece I'll actually learn so who knows what will happen!

Thanks, you guys are making me nervous

Anthony, you'd love Primavera and you'd have it down in 3days (max)
- SC